Self Hypnosis for Change

Self hypnosis involves producing a dream-like state in which your conscious mind becomes passive. You can perform self hypnosis by yourself or with the help of a hypnosis tape.

Self hypnosis is useful in hypnotherapy for reinforcing the suggestions given during a hypnosis session with a hypnotist. Often in hypnotherapy you will be taught and encouraged to use self hypnosis to help accelerate and maintain your progress.

Most everyone can experience hypnosis. Only for 10 to 15 percent of the people is entering hypnosis difficult. If you have an average imagination and daydream once and a while you can be a good hypnosis subject.

Hypnosis and Self Hypnosis

But, what about the difference between hypnosis and self hypnosis? Most knowledgeable authorities believe that all hypnosis is self hypnosis.

In hypnosis the hypnotist merely acts as a guide. The guide helps you concentrate and relax. As you start to relax the guide encourages you to concentrate on thoughts that deepen your trance. Then the guide offers suggestions intended to help you. Then the guide encourages you to be roused from the trance back to alertness.

Initially, a hypnotist will be more experienced than you in guiding your thoughts and images that produce a deep trance. But, with some training you can learn one or more patterns of imagery that help produce a trance and deepen it.

You probably already know that progressive relaxation is a popular technique for inducing the concentration and relaxation necessary for a trance. Imagine yourself in a comfortable chair with your arms at your sides. Picture yourself concentrating on the muscles from your head to your toes. Picture yourself suggesting to yourself that you relax your jaw muscles to allow your jaw to rest gently so your upper and lower teeth are separated. Suggest to yourself that you relax your tongue so it does not press against the roof of your mouth. Then suggest that your eyelids are relaxed so your eyelids are gently closed, completely without tension.

When you are originating the suggestions for concentrating your attention on certain muscle groups and suggesting relaxation, you are acting as the hypnotist as well as the subject. Of course, if you actually undergo hypnosis you will get a good idea of the images that work well for you.

Self Hypnosis is Effective

Self hypnosis can be used to increase the effectiveness of a hypnotherapy session. In fact, most hypnotherapists help you lean to hypnotize yourself so you can reinforce the suggestions they give during a normal hypnosis session. But, self hypnosis, by itself, can also be helpful.

• Self hypnosis, in one study reported in the Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery reported that those patients having coronary artery bypass surgery who were taught self hypnosis for relaxation had significantly lower anxiety levels and required significantly less pain medication.
• The British Medical Journal reported several studies that showed that women undergoing childbirth who practiced self hypnosis had significantly less pain and considered their labor to be more satisfying.
• The journal Clinical Pediatrics reports a study of 5 pediatric patients with functional abdominal pain with no identifiable cause. They were taught self hypnosis and within 3 weeks 4 of the 5 no longer had stomach pains.
• The International Journal of Audiology reports on a study of 45 patients suffering from chronic tinnitus. Several therapies were tested, but self hypnosis was the only therapy producing significant reductions in tinnitus severity.
• The journal BMC Pediatrics reports how an asthmatic patient dependent on steroids was taught self hypnosis and was weaned of the steroid therapy. The patient said that self hypnosis was as useful as levalbuterol for shortness of breath and such episodes became  much less frequent.

You will get a good idea about how to induce hypnosis from other articles and videos on this site. Be sure to watch several videos for different techniques and choose the one that most appeals to you.

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